Cane farmers threaten to block highway, rail track on Nov 21

Sugarcane farmers from the region held a protest outside the district administrative complexes in Jalandhar, Phagwara, Kapurthala, Nawanshahr and Hoshiarpur on Tuesday, demanding that the State Advised Price (SAP) for the crop for the next season be enhanced to Rs 500 per quintal and that the schedule of the operating sugar mills be also declared by the government.The farmers, led by the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Doaba) chief Manjit Singh Rai, said that they had made the announcement about today's protest and that of blocking the Jalandhar-Phagwara highway and rail track on November 21 two weeks ago, but the government had not paid heed to this. "We have given the government ultimatum for two more days, failing which we shall block the highway and rail track indefinitely. The onus of any loss to the commuters during road/rail jam will be on the state government," said the BKU (Doaba) leaders.

President of the Doaba Kisan Sangharsh Committee Balwinder S Malli Nangal also joined the protest. "We have been raising the demand with the government officials concerned for the past four months. We have held several rounds of meetings too, but to no avail. The Punjab Government has not issued any notification regarding the starting of the sugar mills, whereas the UP Government got mills started on October 31. We have to seek our demands in the form of protest every year from the government, as our demands are ignored every year," he said.

The farmers declared to hold indefinite protest on the national highway and the adjoining rail track at Dakoha on November 21 if their demands were not met.